Being 7 is tough enough without ‘gender studies’

IT IS alarming to see the Government and the education establishment looking seriously at plans to stop using the terms ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ in schools, supposedly because doing so ‘discriminates’ against transgender pupils.

Can we really contemplate schools in which teachers will hesitate – or even fear – to use the time-worn phrase ‘boys and girls’ in daily life, in case it is deemed to be offensive, or even a trigger for some sort of legal or disciplinary action?

Yet experience shows just how quickly such things can spread, once they have begun. Even more radically, promoters of the new book Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity? propose to introduce seven-year-olds to the complexities of gender categories – including ‘genderqueer’, ‘panromantic’ and ‘transwoman’.

Nobody would seek to deny some children become troubled about such things, or that they need sympathy and care when they do.

But that does not mean our school system should accept without question the contentious beliefs of some that the best way to deal with this is to introduce children as young as seven to ‘medical transition’ and hormone blockers.

Our main concern must be for the wellbeing of those children involved. Surely we would be better off keeping an open mind about their doubts, and dealing with them individually, rather than officially endorsing a controversial theory about the nature of gender.

Our schools have accepted many radical and controversial changes in thought over the past 20 years, especially over what we regard as normal in sexual relations.

In many such cases, we have simply become more tolerant of our differences from each other. But here we are asked to accept a powerful medical intervention in the life of a small child is normal. This is far more contentious, and goes a good deal further than previous changes.

It is hard enough being seven years old in 2016, without being instructed to believe that boys will be girls, and girls will be boys, or perhaps neither – and that it may be necessary to take drugs to decide. This is a step too far.